A Planet Called Cervantes (John Keith)

A  lone stranger called Kerrender arrives on the planet Cervantes (presumably a nod to the famous Spanish author), He is a highly trained fighter, 7ft 5ins tall and needs fuel for his ship to help repel an attack by the Rengols, an enemy force who have decimated his home planet of Rawn. After a saloon brawl leaves ten of the locals dead. Kerrender is challenged to a duel with flame-whips, while the Rengol fleet is getting ever closer.

There is a mish-mash of themes here, none of which really work (although the Spaghetti Western saloon scene is quite fun), The pretentious repetition of the line 'On Rawn died the Thirty Thousand...' is just irritating and while the ideas are decent enough for a student rag mag, they are exposed in this short story. Looking on the isfdb site, author John Keith didn't do anything else, which is a shame as there is promise in the raw talent, and the writing itself is reasonable.

Overall:- 4/10

Planet:- Cervantes

Included in:-
New Writings in SF-26 edited by Kenneth Bulmer (12 pages)

Two Rivers (R.W. Mackelworth)

A community lives by a lake inside a huge dome which supposedly protects everyone from the toxic air outside. A group of them plan to be the first for over 100 years to leave the safety of the dome and they journey on two boats, down two rivers, that flow to the outside. Some of one group are stranded and they travel across land to try and meet up with the second boat, which is travelling down the other river, but a virus has already caught up with them. The planet seems unsuitable for habitation, but there are 100,000 people who need to know for sure.

English author R.W. Mackelworth doesn't have a huge body of work and I'm not surprised as this short story is drab. The writing itself is fine but the plot is dull and goes nowhere. The 'hope for mankind' optimistic ending does nothing for a cynic like me and I'd forgotten the characters and narrative within minutes of finishing reading.

Overall:- 4/10

Included in:-
New Writings in SF-17 edited by John Carnell (24 pages)

Delilah and the Space-Rigger (Robert A. Heinlein)

A space station gets a replacement crew member who turns out to be female, much to the consternation of the station's captain. Running a tight ship is always a problem and the last thing he needs is an attractive electronics engineer ("I'd rather have a dope peddler than have a woman sniffing around my boys!"). She soon becomes accepted by the rest of the crew though and when he tries to offload her, he discovers that if she goes most of the crew go as well.

Heinlein is a genuine sci-fi heavyweight but this story (which is part of his Future History series, dealing with man's colonisation of space) reads more like an introduction to a bigger story rather than a tale in itself. As such, despite being well-written, its too slight to get too excited about in isolation to be honest.

Overall:- 5.5/10

Spaceship:- Space Station One

Included in:-
The Green Hills of Earth by Robert A. Heinlein (12 pages)

Twilight (John W. Campbell)

A man tells his friend about a strange hitch-hiker he picked up, who claimed to be from millions of years in the future, called Ares Sen Kenlin. He speaks of an abandoned city that he found, still populated by robots going about their duties, despite humans having left over 150,000 years earlier. He makes contact with a human in the distant city of San Frisco and takes a transport ship there, where he meets the current evolution of mankind which is in its twilight.

I can understand why this short story from John W. Campbell (most famous for 'Who Goes There?') is highly regarded, as it deals with high-brow stuff that intellectuals must have drooled over. The description of the cities, still run by machines, is certainly awe-inspiring but the story itself is quite cold and the writing style (probably deliberately) wooden - which makes Twilight easy to admire but not a whole lot of fun to read.

Overall:- 6.5/10

Planet:- Earth  Year:- 1932 & 3059

Included in:-
Science Fiction Hall of Fame - Vol One edited by Robert Silverberg (23 pages)